Conventional two-way portable radios are usually designed with a main display on a front panel to provide essential information to a user. Generally, the portable radio is carried in a holster or held by a belt clip. To view displayed information, the user must remove the radio from the holster or disengage the belt clip. Public safety personnel, such as fire fighters, police officers, rescue members, and the like, often wear gloves and other safety equipment that can make it difficult to remove the radio from the holster or disengage the belt clip.
For example, during a mission critical task, the user may not be able to remove safety gloves to pull the radio from the holster or disengage the belt clip. Thus, two-way radio users especially those working in public safety and mission critical tasks would benefit from a display interface which provides information at a quick glance, without having to remove the radio from the holster or belt clip.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,382,294 attempts to solve the above-mentioned problem by providing a radio that can channel a portion of the display to a top window so that the user does not have to remove the radio from a belt in order to see information displayed on the radio. However, the '294 patent has several drawbacks. Firstly, radios of today typically utilize a touch-screen, with the user interacting with interface elements displayed on the touchscreen. There is no current way for a user to interact with such interface elements using the top window. Secondly, if a radio is not worn on the belt, the bulky top display is not needed.
Therefore, it would be beneficial if a top display could be utilized which could control interface elements on a touchscreen of the radio, and also be removable for when a user does not carry the radio on a belt.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.